DJ who inspired ‘Good Morning, Vietnam’ dies at 79
Air Force vet hosted morning show out of Saigon from 1965-66
In 1965 and 1966, Adrian Cronauer signed on at 6 a.m. from a Saigon studio as the morning DJ for Armed Forces Radio, waking up the troops with a signature line that became the title of a hit movie and has echoed through the years: “Good morning, Vietnam!”
He was an Air Force enlisted man with a golden voice and the aim of giving his listeners an auditory taste of home, with rock ’n’ roll, soul music and a sassy irreverence that became the basis for the 1987 film that starred Robin Williams as Mr. Cronauer.
The movie took liberties with Cronauer’s real-life experiences, but the resemblance was close enough that it brought him a degree of celebrity.
Cronauer, a longtime broadcaster and advertising executive who later became a lawyer and a Defense Department official, died July 18 at a nursing home near his home in Troutville, Va. He was 79.
The death was confirmed by a daughter-in-law, Mary Muse, who declined to provide a specific cause.
At first, Cronauer had reservations about being portrayed on film, especially by such a flamboyant talent as Williams.
“I was afraid of what they were going to do to me and it took me a little while to get used to seeing someone named Adrian Cronauer up there on the screen,” Cronauer told the Associated Press in 1987. “But I saw it and I liked it.”
Williams’ antic character displayed a more subversive, antiauthoritarian bent than Cronauer did. Williams’ DJ ad-libbed monologues about sex, politics and absurd regulations and invented a variety of characters, including an imaginary designer of military uniforms: “Why not plaids and stripes? When you go into battle, clash!”
Still, there were similarities between the character and Cronauer: Both taught English to Vietnamese students and were reprimanded by superior officers for shaking up the staid announcing style and bland musical playlist of military radio.
In Cronauer’s Vietnam morning show, called “Dawn Buster,” the silky strings of Mantovani were shelved in favor of the Supremes, the Beatles and the Righteous Brothers. He spoofed popular culture and made fun of military doublespeak, all in an effort to boost the morale of homesick U.S. troops.
“There were lots of ridiculous announcements, like ‘Send your gifts by August to arrive in time for Christmas,’ ” he told the Chicago Tribune. “The crowning achievement for me was when I heard from some guys that when they tuned into ‘Dawn Buster’ for the first time, they assumed they had picked up some radio station from the States.”
After Cronauer left Vietnam in 1966, later DJs, including future “Wheel of Fortune” host Pat Sajak, continued his showopening shout of “Good morning, Vietnam!”
Cronauer, in the meantime, worked for a television station in Ohio before moving to Roanoke, Va., in 1967. For the next 12 years, he worked as a local TV anchor, FM-radio announcer and broadcast executive.
He moved to New York in 1979 to work as an announcer on the classical music station WQXR. He also opened an advertising agency and did voice-over work.
In New York, Cronauer and another Vietnam veteran, Ben Moses, began to kick around an idea for a TV show based loosely on two popular sitcoms of the time: “M*A*S*H,” set during the Korean War, and “WKRP in Cincinnati,” about high jinks at a radio station.
“It occurred to us that if you take the two of them and put them together,” Cronauer told Newsday, “you’ve got Armed Forces Radio.”
They called their show “Good Morning, Vietnam!”
They shopped the idea success until it found its way to Williams’ agent. The sitcom idea was scrapped, and screenwriter Mitch Markowitz reworked the script as a feature film.
Director Barry Levinson kept Williams and Cronauer apart until the film was completed.
“His theory supposedly was that if we met, Robin would subconsciously start trying to do an imitation of me, which would change the characterization,” Cronauer told the Roanoke Times. “When the movie premiered in New York, we met, and we shook hands and Robin said, ‘I’m glad to finally meet you.’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m glad to finally meet me, too.’ ”